R.U.R.: Rossum's Universal Robots -- the Play That Introduced Robots to the World

Karel Capek's 1921 science fiction play introduced the word "robot" to a world still recovering from the ravages of war. The idealistic young Helena Glory arrives at the remote island factory where artificial people are constructed out of synthetic organic matter, called "robots." Glory's plan is to liberate the robots, but things don't go as planned -- neither for Miss Glory, nor for humankind once the robots realize they're actually more than "so much grass" and begin their own rebellion. Still relevant today, R.U.R.: Rossum's Universal Robots examines what it is to be human and robot, and what it means to love.

As a frequent theather goer I feel confident in highly recomending the production of this play. The actors turned in earnest moving performance and this is a play that not should be overlooked, despite it's small and out of the way venue.

This is one of my favorite plays - the first scifi story about robots, and Kapek came up with pretty much all the issues that later stories deal with. The staging and costumes really added to the play - the makeup on the 'robots' had that 'uncanny...continued

My friend and I felt incredibly guilty leaving at intermission -- particularly since we were the only two in the audience. But after the first half, it was imperative that we do so. Many flubbed lines, lots of very amateur acting, and the strange...continued

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Description

Written by Karel Čapek

Directed by Brad Gunter

Running time is approximately 95 minutes.

About the Ticket Supplier: Strangeloop Theatre

Though we officially incorporated as Strangeloop Theatre in October of 2008, it was in the early part of that year that a core group of us started meeting up to discuss creating a theatre company we could call home. In June of 2008, we did a one-night staging of Welcome to the Moon (and other plays) by John Patrick Shanley as our first performance, because we could do a collection of short pieces using multiple directors and actors within the group. It was a wonderful first endeavor and helped to further strengthen a sense of community within the group.

That sense of community helped us to grow over the course of our first two years -- staging work that allows a number of voices to participate in the theatrical process. In addition to producing strong work by well-known playwrights, such as Brian Friel's Living Quarters, we have also shown a commitment to working with theatre artists of every discipline in the creation of new and original work, including our world-premiere adaptation of Ferdinand Raimund's The Millionaire Farmer, our holiday cabaret shows and our short play workshop series, Loopshop.